9 August 2024
But what are we to understand here by “the world” [John 16:8-11]? We
dare not understand by it the coarse, outward sins, as adultery, murder,
stealing and theft. There are instituted for such characters the wheels and
gallows, with which the worldly powers, the kings, emperors and princes, have
to do. But we will interpret “the world” as the subtle and secret sins, of
which the Holy Spirit convicts, which the world does not know as sin. Yea, it
pronounces them divine works; it applauds them and will not permit them to be
called sins. How else can unbelief and other secret sins live in the heart
while the heart itself is not conscious of them and knows not that they are
sins? But those who convict the world must, on that account, be reviled as
heretics and be banished from the country, as we see at present. Therefore, the
Holy Spirit must convict the world.
Martin Luther
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